On more reason to lose some weight

This story in The Star’s scandal website, Daily Chilli, sounds incredible if true. Unspun’s not taking chances though and hitting the treadmill machines at 5.30am tomorrow. Being overweight is bad for your health but this adds a whole new dimension to the problem of obesity.

Gang which killed people for their fat

A gang in the Peruvian jungle has been killing people and draining fat from the corpses to sell on the black market for use in cosmetics, although medical experts say they doubt a major market for fat exists.

Three suspects confessed to killing five people, but the gang may have been involved in dozens more, said Col. Jorge Mejia, chief of Peru’s anti-kidnapping police.

A police officer displaying two bottles containing human fat

He said one suspect claimed the gang wasn’t the only one doing such killings.

Mejia said two of the suspects were arrested carrying bottles of liquid human fat and told police it was worth ($15,000 a litre) (RM50,875).

The fat was sold to intermediaries in Peru’s capital, Lima, and police suspect it was then sold to cosmetic companies in Europe.

Medical experts expressed doubt about an international black market for human fat, though it does have cosmetic applications.

A dermatology professor at Yale University, Dr. Lisa Donofrio, speculated that a small market may exist for “human fat extracts” to keep skin supple, but she said that scientifically such treatments are “pure baloney.”